What to even begin to write about India? Feels impossible. What an amazing amazing place. giant mirror, though. Amazing sense that unimaginable things are possible, but it all depends on what you put out.
We arrived in Varanasi the day of Shivaratri.The streets were mostly closed down for the festivities later that night, so we took packed auto rickshaws from the train station as far as we could. I had no idea that many people and backpacks could fit in an auto rickshaw and I imagine even more could if we really got creative and cramped. The walk was fast paced first through the main street and then through a maze of alleyways. There were infinite people lined up for Shivaratri who had been lined up for likely a full day already. Little unclear exactly what they were lining up for, but it certainly had something to do with the holiday and making pilgrimage to temples and the like. Much attention of all kinds being directed at us, Om nama shivaya.Our hotel overlooks the Ganges. I think maybe I want to bathe in the Ganges today? Just my feet perhaps?
We all went out for Shivaratri in the evening despite hearing that it wouldn't be possible for the women over and over again. The plan was for us all to walk to an ice cream shop and for the women to watch from above and for the men to go out in little shifts, and perhaps if it were safe enough escort women out and act as bodyguards. This isn't what ended up happening. On our way, we got caught up in the procession, and we all were in the middle of it, men making a human shield aroiund the women, having the times of our lives and just going with it, flowing with the dangerously uninhibited Indian collective unconscious. I had a great time! I was strategically placed and got a lot of positive attention and a lot less grabbing and groping than the rest of the women. At the point at which the chaos got to be too much, it dispersed and passed.
I no longer feel I can recount events in chronological order.
I've been watching bodies burn at the particular ghat where they do that. That was something I knew I had to do in Varanasi. I went 3 times, and I think the first 2 I wasn't really ready to see anything, so my subconscious stopped me from actually being able to see anything, even though it was all around me. I saw fires and ash, but nothing recognizably human. On my third visit, after standing around and again seeing nothing, the extent to which death was all around me finally set in. The mangled burning flesh entered my field of vision, bones being tossed in the water, dogs poking around for the remains, ash, mourners, chanting, smoke. The ground around me I realized was likely covered on bodily remains, and an awareness of how full the water must have been came to me as well. I made my way on to see the city in all of its other many stages of life, as well, being passed on the way by many processions of people carrying bodies wrapped in colorful cloths to the funeral pyres, chanting together and not seeming all that somber, simply with an awareness that all life eventually goes in that direction.
I escaped some bad odds this morning. I was invited to dinner at a Brahman's house last night, and the 3 other people I was with are all sick this morning.This began yesterday morning where I went out alone in the morning, awoken early by the bustling sounds of the city, incredibly eager to get out there! Being out alone certainly made me more of a target, I was followed by all kind of people. Do you want a boat? Why not, very cheap! Hashish? Chai? Where you from, what country? Where do you go? Do you need help? Won't you come and see my silk shop? Very cheap, 100% real silk. Please, I'd like it if you'd stop following me. I'm not following you. Its all rather harmless, though. I found myself wandering through the maze into a little square where I saw a man speaking sign language and immediately thought of Jessica. I asked a man, who happened to be the Brahman man I spoke of, if this man was deaf. He was one of the Brahman's nephews, and I told him I had someone I wanted to introduce to him who was studying sign language and deaf culture. The fact that I was actually able to find my way back to the hotel and back there with Jessica and Sophie was pretty amazing. In a weird way I haven't had much of a sense of direction in any other city we've been in, but in a city with total chaos and no rhyme or reason I kind of intuitively get it.
We returned and met the same Brahman man, who took us into his house, which was in a 7 story building his family owned, and introduced us to an entire deaf family, whom Jessica was able to communicate with with a mixture of sign languages. We had Chai with them, the best Chai I've had in India this far (which is saying a hell of a lot!) and asked lots of questions about Hinduism while Jessica and her new friends communicated in a flurry of signing. Sophie and I were taken up to the roof to admire an incredible view of the whole city, and were all invited back to dinner, where we were served amazing Coconut filled chapatis. We all had the very Indian experience of eating to our bursting point and not being able to get out host to stop filling our plates again.
We arrived in Varanasi the day of Shivaratri.The streets were mostly closed down for the festivities later that night, so we took packed auto rickshaws from the train station as far as we could. I had no idea that many people and backpacks could fit in an auto rickshaw and I imagine even more could if we really got creative and cramped. The walk was fast paced first through the main street and then through a maze of alleyways. There were infinite people lined up for Shivaratri who had been lined up for likely a full day already. Little unclear exactly what they were lining up for, but it certainly had something to do with the holiday and making pilgrimage to temples and the like. Much attention of all kinds being directed at us, Om nama shivaya.Our hotel overlooks the Ganges. I think maybe I want to bathe in the Ganges today? Just my feet perhaps?
We all went out for Shivaratri in the evening despite hearing that it wouldn't be possible for the women over and over again. The plan was for us all to walk to an ice cream shop and for the women to watch from above and for the men to go out in little shifts, and perhaps if it were safe enough escort women out and act as bodyguards. This isn't what ended up happening. On our way, we got caught up in the procession, and we all were in the middle of it, men making a human shield aroiund the women, having the times of our lives and just going with it, flowing with the dangerously uninhibited Indian collective unconscious. I had a great time! I was strategically placed and got a lot of positive attention and a lot less grabbing and groping than the rest of the women. At the point at which the chaos got to be too much, it dispersed and passed.
I no longer feel I can recount events in chronological order.
I've been watching bodies burn at the particular ghat where they do that. That was something I knew I had to do in Varanasi. I went 3 times, and I think the first 2 I wasn't really ready to see anything, so my subconscious stopped me from actually being able to see anything, even though it was all around me. I saw fires and ash, but nothing recognizably human. On my third visit, after standing around and again seeing nothing, the extent to which death was all around me finally set in. The mangled burning flesh entered my field of vision, bones being tossed in the water, dogs poking around for the remains, ash, mourners, chanting, smoke. The ground around me I realized was likely covered on bodily remains, and an awareness of how full the water must have been came to me as well. I made my way on to see the city in all of its other many stages of life, as well, being passed on the way by many processions of people carrying bodies wrapped in colorful cloths to the funeral pyres, chanting together and not seeming all that somber, simply with an awareness that all life eventually goes in that direction.
I escaped some bad odds this morning. I was invited to dinner at a Brahman's house last night, and the 3 other people I was with are all sick this morning.This began yesterday morning where I went out alone in the morning, awoken early by the bustling sounds of the city, incredibly eager to get out there! Being out alone certainly made me more of a target, I was followed by all kind of people. Do you want a boat? Why not, very cheap! Hashish? Chai? Where you from, what country? Where do you go? Do you need help? Won't you come and see my silk shop? Very cheap, 100% real silk. Please, I'd like it if you'd stop following me. I'm not following you. Its all rather harmless, though. I found myself wandering through the maze into a little square where I saw a man speaking sign language and immediately thought of Jessica. I asked a man, who happened to be the Brahman man I spoke of, if this man was deaf. He was one of the Brahman's nephews, and I told him I had someone I wanted to introduce to him who was studying sign language and deaf culture. The fact that I was actually able to find my way back to the hotel and back there with Jessica and Sophie was pretty amazing. In a weird way I haven't had much of a sense of direction in any other city we've been in, but in a city with total chaos and no rhyme or reason I kind of intuitively get it.
We returned and met the same Brahman man, who took us into his house, which was in a 7 story building his family owned, and introduced us to an entire deaf family, whom Jessica was able to communicate with with a mixture of sign languages. We had Chai with them, the best Chai I've had in India this far (which is saying a hell of a lot!) and asked lots of questions about Hinduism while Jessica and her new friends communicated in a flurry of signing. Sophie and I were taken up to the roof to admire an incredible view of the whole city, and were all invited back to dinner, where we were served amazing Coconut filled chapatis. We all had the very Indian experience of eating to our bursting point and not being able to get out host to stop filling our plates again.
silk shops, getting ripped off again and again, thinking we were in some way not ripped off and had finally beaten the system only to find they got us again, or perhaps the ones telling us we've been cheated are lying?
Must go, we go to Sarnath today and I want to take a walk before coming back to shower and pack. The city awaits!
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